A few months ago I wrote about going down to London to see my Brother. Here is what I thought of the Disney Expo we went to. 

An advert for 100 Years of Disney popped up on my instagram and I really wanted to go. I messaged my brother and he got us some tickets. We went on the first weekend it was open. I had never been to the Excel and wasn’t sure what to expect. When we got there there were a lot of people queueing outside. We were glad we go there early as we could tell it was going to be packed. 

When you first go in you watch a video of Walt Disney  Welcoming you to the magic of Disney and there are three screens either side playing various images from content throughout the years. Finally Micky appears and invites you into explore. 

The event is set up in a time line. First you are shown how Disney started out with a tiny rabbit. But then you see the introduction of Micky Mouse and friends.

As you wander around you see some really amazing drawings from films like Fantasia. There are also videos playing to match up with the art work meaning you can listen to character creation. There are also some props of characters such as Winnie the Pooh and from live action films like Beauty and the Beast. I particularly enjoyed the sketches from the films in the late 80s and 90s as they were some of my favourite films. 

As you wandered around and walked through the history of Disney you could see how the character style changed over time with the development of technology. But there are still physical items to see such as a huge case full of 3D models of characters such as Jafar and Elsa. 

It was interesting to see how Disney is heavily influenced by folk tales. When you look at something like Frozen and how it is created using influences from Nordic Countries such as Denmark where the Snow Queen first appeared. The Snow Queen being the story which Frozen is loosely based upon. 

As well as the films and the story of Disney you also see the creation of the parks and how the castles differ depending on which Disney Park you are in. The  castle in Tokyo Disney reflects the style of Architecture for that region. 

There is an amazing map of what Disney envisioned Disney World to look like and this is what they used to convince the banks to give them the money to build it. 

I really enjoyed going to the expo and for the price of it, around £30 each it was definitely worth it. I would say it is worth going. We were in there for about 3 hours in total. Which was really great. 

If you are Visually Impaired I would recommend having someone with you to help you read the information as it is all on small piece of card. 

It is absolutely worth the visit.  
Disney Expo tickets

Thank you for reading,
Philippa B.